Tech —

Proteus chat app is back on the Mac

Proteus has made its grand re-entrance into the Mac OS X chat client market, …

No, the headline's not a typo. Proteus, one of the most powerful and fully-featured chat apps in its day, is back on the Mac. Offering multi-network functionality and a few unique tricks up its sleeve, I'm sure there are many a Mac user who will be just as excited to download this new version as I was.

After its original developer, Justin Wood, took a job with Apple and handed over Proteus' reigns to Defaultware in 2004, Proteus quickly began to lag behind competition from Adium and Fire (now retired). Eventually the app fell off the radar, sadly fading away instead of burning out.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw a new Proteus 4.16 release float past my RSS feeds. Unfortunately, not much more is listed for this release than "various bug fixes, new icons and IMServices is now universal binary," though it appears to work fine in Leopard. Even file transfers work (at least over AIM accounts), and I notice what might be a few new gems that I don't remember from the good ol' days.

Most notably, an SMS Forwarding option allows you to specify a mobile phone address for forwarding IMs on a per-status basis. This offers far more flexibility than the SMS forwarding features of the supported IM services, as you can leave Proteus running while still getting messages forwarded while you're away from your Mac. Also present is Growl support and plenty of control over message styles and event notifications.

I can only assume that this update is a result of what appears to be a fresh new batch of developers on the project. The project now lives at Proteusx.org, and a message in the forums there back in October called for developers to resuscitate it.

Altogether, Proteus' resurfacing is a welcome addition to Mac software. It's a slick chat app with some unique features that now appears to be offered for free (or what I assume could be donationware) once the full site comes back online.